The
definitive collection of Jan Hammer's music from the classic Miami Vice
series is testament to the visionary musical approach which helped define
a television landmark-

Jan
Hammer is a product of diverse locales. Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia,
he began his musical journey at the age of four as a piano prodigy; at
thirteen he formed a jazz trio; and as a young man came to the United States
to attend The Berklee School of Music in Boston. In New York City, Hammer
helped define a new standard for rock and jazz-fusion as a member of the
Mahavishnu Orchestra and later, from his studio in suburban New York, established
himself as a pioneer on many fronts through a series of inspired solo efforts
and collaborations with a who’s who of contemporary musicians. It is not
unexpected then, that Miami, a city half way around the world from where
Hammer began, would play such a huge part in his legendary career.

In 1984, Hammer was approached by producers
of a soon to be released television pilot set in Miami and centering around
two vice detectives. True to his personality, Hammer set out to create
the score for these shows in his own ingenious way. He approached
each show as its own one-hour film, and strove to stay away from the standard
of “scoring by numbers” that was so prevalent in the industry. Never reading
a script, Jan’s inspiration came when he first viewed the final cut, taking
notes as he watched the cassettes sent from the west coast. From
a distance of 3000 miles, he re-invented the art of scoring for television.
Like Hammer himself, Miami Vice was a product of different locales:
the shows were shot on location in Miami, posted in Los Angeles, and scored
in New York. Miami Vice and Jan Hammer were a perfect fit.

In a dizzying 4 to 5 day turnaround, he
wrote and performed approximately 20 minutes of new music for each episode.
Hammer became the show’s third star--- his music its own character with
its own dialogue. So integral was his contribution that, in the beginning,
it seemed as though publicity focused mainly on the show’s two stars, Don
Johnson, Phillip Michael Thomas, and around Jan Hammer. It is obvious
that Universal and NBC knew what a valuable asset Hammer and his music
were to the show, and the city of Miami soon knew what a valuable asset
Miami
Vice was---tourism increased 10% in the months following the show's
debut.

In November 1985, Miami Vice hit
number one on the Billboard Top Pop album charts---Henry Mancini’s
Music
From Peter Gunn, 26 years earlier, had been the last television soundtrack
to do so. The following week “Miami Vice Theme” hit number one on
the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and, in so doing, became the
first and only instrumental theme for television to reach this pinnacle
of success. The album sold over 4 million copies domestically, over
7 million worldwide, and secured the number one position for 12 weeks.
The follow-up, Miami Vice II, also enjoyed chart-topping international
success with Hammer’s hit single “Crockett’s Theme”. At the 1986
Grammy Awards, “Miami Vice Theme” won Hammer two awards: “Best Pop Instrumental
Performance” and “ Best Instrumental Composition”. Jan Hammer’s work
on “Miami Vice”, the television show and its album, had warranted and received
accolades from the public, his peers and industry critics alike.

Over the three and a half seasons he scored
the series, Jan Hammer created an enormous body of original music from
rock to reggae, from classical to jazz, and his own brand of cutting edge
music. Yet while his overwhelming commercial success, his contribution
to the Miami Vice phenomenon and its lasting imprint on the industry
are indisputable, Hammer might never have dreamed of producing this definitive
collection of his work were it not for the volume of fan requests which
come his way even today via his web site. Says Hammer, “ Fans
would make reference to themes that I had forgotten about after all of
these years, so I went back, watched the shows for myself and realized
how much music there was that cried out to be released ”.

In summing up Jan Hammer’s gift and his
contribution to the Miami Vice series, co-star Phillip Michael Thomas
once said, “If there is a soundtrack to life, Jan Hammer is the only one
who can hear it”. His diverse and unique background, his life experiences
and his visionary ideas allowed him to paint with musical notes the soundtrack
of a television landmark.